NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

[LesStrat]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

Is that a black top?

Maybe if you paint the sides it'll be darker.

 

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

I first saw it as a concept guitar last year and thought it would cost more than I was willing to pay, so I was happy to see that it emerged as a reasonably priced MIM.

Wow, nice ax! You are so lucky to have gotten a sneak peek at this while it was still in the concept stage. How did you manage that?

 

[Big Flannel]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

Good question.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

I have to wonder why DreX thinks it's ok to pony up for a Marshall TSL but not for a Gibson or MIA Fender. I'm with formula73 and Big Flannel on that one.

The attention to detail on the guitar isn't the best either and I agree with kramersteen, do your own demo. Don't post somebody else's.

 

[ExplorersRock]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

Wow, nice ax! You are so lucky to have gotten a sneak peek at this while it was still in the concept stage. How did you manage that?

+1

I gotta say, I love guitars that are just a little unique and have their own character. I got a thinline tele w/P90s for that reason. I was at NAMM 2014 and don't recall seeing this as a concept in the Fender booth. How did you score an insider's view of it? Pretty awesome if you ask me.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

To the people wondering why DreX is taking some heat...

All I can say is what goes around comes around.

 

[Securb]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

the Triple Tele strikes me as something Leo Fender might have done and which rockstars through the ages would have readily adopted had is been served up.

I am not too sure about this guitar being adopted by the "rock" community. Teles were never a prefered "rock" guitar and single coils started to lose popularity in the "rock" community in the early 70's. Even Fender had started making the switch to humbuckers at this point recognizing the trend. By the 80's everything was about the super Strat. I could see this guitar being a fan favorite in Nashville but only a novelty for a few players in the rock community.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

I am not too sure about this guitar being adopted by the "rock" community. Teles were never a prefered "rock" guitar and single coils started to lose popularity in the "rock" community in the early 70's. Even Fender had started making the switch to humbuckers at this point recognizing the trend. By the 80's everything was about the super Strat. I could see this guitar being a fan favorite in Nashville but only a novelty for a few players in the rock community.

+1 to this. I am not saying a Tele can't do rock (Joe Strummer, John5) but for the most part the Tele is a country guitar. Waylon Jennings played a Tele and is also the reason why I like Telecasters (along with Strummer). Prince plays a Tele too so it can can seen in modern funk music as well. Rock? Not as much but they are out there. For sure this may have been a Nashville favorite like Securb said.

 

[LesStrat]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

There's a recent thread about this guitar. I first saw it as a concept guitar last year and thought it would cost more than I was willing to pay, so I was happy to see that it emerged as a reasonably priced MIM.

All three bridge type Tele pickups are supposedly Nocasters, reading between 6.6k and 6.7k ohms. From the factory, they set the neck pickup a lot closer to the pick guard while the mid and bridge were about the same. 250k pots.

All around, it's not nearly as dark as I had anticipated, certainly due to the Nocasters. The bridge is all Tele in tone as you'd expect. The all the other positions have a rich sound, like a Strat with a lot more twang and dimension. The middle pickup alone sounds a lot richer to my ear than the middle pickup of a Strat. The neck pickup sounds like a neck pickup should, but the top three string which fall over the more set back half of the pickup have a sort of acoustic guitar like color to them. All and all it's very open sounding guitar with a lot of dimension. It really brings some of the favorable qualities of the Tele bridge out to the rest of the guitar, and gives it a tone of it's own. I'm surprised this configuration isn't more common.

All around I'm happy, but I'd like to hear it with a full set of Twang Kings. Nocasters are clean and bright, and IMO don't necessarily represent the best Tele tone that can be had. I'd really like to hear three beefy Tele bridge pickups in this thing.

An interesting thing about the ash tray bridge is that one half is polished and the other half is not, I don't think I've seen one like that before.

I prefer high quality guitars that don't need to be dismantled as soon as I buy them.

Can an someone please give an objective review of this axe? I'd like to know what it really is/does without the subjective assessments of its qualities

 

[LesStrat]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

+1 to this. I am not saying a Tele can't do rock (Joe Strummer, John5) but for the most part the Tele is a country guitar. Waylon Jennings played a Tele and is also the reason why I like Telecasters (along with Strummer). Prince plays a Tele too so it can can seen in modern funk music as well. Rock? Not as much but they are out there. For sure this may have been a Nashville favorite like Securb said.

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]Teles have been replaced by LPs in recent years in Nashville.
[/FONT]
There are a couple of notable tele users left, but the LP has taken over in a big way.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]Teles have been replaced by LPs in recent years in Nashville.
[/FONT]
There are a couple of notable tele users left, but the LP has taken over in a big way.

That's awesome, I did not know that. I have not been to TN in about 20 years now and I don't watch a lot of country music awards/videos. I'm a big fan of the LP.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

I prefer high quality guitars that don't need to be dismantled as soon as I buy them.

Can an someone please give an objective review of this axe? I'd like to know what it really is/does without the subjective assessments of its qualities

+1 to this.

If I want a guitar that has to be dismantled right away I will just buy a Warmoth or other custom build brand/kit guitar so I can do it right the first time. Buying a Fender just to mod it right away seems like a need to have the Fender logo on the headstock and nothing else.

 

[Securb]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]Teles have been replaced by LPs in recent years in Nashville.
[/FONT]
There are a couple of notable tele users left, but the LP has taken over in a big way.

Or the Tele pickups have been replaced by humbuckers.

+1 to this. I am not saying a Tele can't do rock (Joe Strummer, John5) but for the most part the Tele is a country guitar.

Keep in mind John5 plays with humbuckers as do most of the "rock" Tele players. Hell, even Springsteen has hums in his Tele now. If you look at the rock guys through the ages and current that use Teles - Buckcherry, Keef, Richie Kotzen you are going to find a humbucker.

I can't see a 3 single Tele talking the rock world by storm.

 

[Snake Aces]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

Or the Tele pickups have been replaced by humbuckers.



Keep in mind John5 plays with humbuckers as do most of the "rock" Tele players. Hell, even Springsteen has hums in his Tele now. If you look at the rock guys through the ages and current that use Teles - Buckcherry, Keef, Richie Kotzen you are going to find a humbucker.

I can't see a 3 single Tele talking the rock world by storm.

Good point. I forgot John5 used humbuckers and I didn't know that about Springsteen.

 

[GilmourD]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

To the people wondering why DreX is taking some heat...

All I can say is what goes around comes around.

I'm certainly not DreX's biggest fan, but I say we reinforce his good behavior (like this thread). That way he knows how he's expected to be around here. I have no problems with anything he's said in this thread.

As for the attention to detail of the guitar... That looks super clean for an MIM that isn't an actual vintage model.

If DreX is happy with the guitar, I'm happy for him. I will continue to correct him when he passes bad advice and information but I'm not going to bag on him when he's being good.

Sent from my Moto X 2014 using Tapatalk

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

I found a demo.

This isn't the first three pickup Tele that tries to do the Strat thing, but I'd say it's the most successful I've heard in terms of retaining the best qualities of Tele. Those bottom plated single coils really seem to have added substance to them.

I modified my brother's Tele with a 3rd neck-style pickup in the middle position, and it looked cool, but it was anemic and the in-between sounds were wimpier than what you'd get from a Strat. I think if you want a convincing three pickup Tele, you need those base plates. The Nashville Tele has a Strat Tex-Mex in the middle, I think it looks absolutely ugly (the Triple Tele is a little odd looking too, I'll admit), but I'd be willing to bet Fender tried out a Tele neck in the middle first and probably came to the same conclusion that the little neck pickup didn't have the necessary muscle. I wanted nothing to do with the Nashville Tele, but the Triple Tele strikes me as something Leo Fender might have done and which rockstars through the ages would have readily adopted had is been served up.

That sounds much better than I had figured it would. Seems pretty cool honestly.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

I still can't quite understand why they keep insisting on going with 21 frets on so much of their production line stuff.

 

[GilmourD]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

I still can't quite understand why they keep insisting on going with 21 frets on so much of their production line stuff.

Easier to manufacture than a 22 fret with an overhang? Not many people are really playing that high up? I rarely even get up to the 21st fret. Of my 11 currently active guitars 5 of them have 21 frets and I don't have any problems. Maybe if I were to play Pink Floyd's Time note-for-note it would be a problem but he used a 24 fret Italian guitar on that.

 

[DreX]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

That sounds much better than I had figured it would. Seems pretty cool honestly.

I have a few Teles and a few Strats because, for among other reasons, I like different pickups so much that I can't pick one or two sets and be fine without so many other sets that are to be had, but still the differences are subtle. The thing about this guitar is it genuinely doesn't sound like Fender's usual staple offerings, and the difference is far from subtle. This and the Cabronita are two MIM Teles that truly bring new tones to the table, but whereas the Cabronita wins on looks and sound, I think guitarists are going to write the Triple Tele off as a gimick and assume three bridge pickups used seemingly improperly can't be that good and never give it a try. I'm willing to do this free promo work for multi million dollar conglomerate FMIC because it would make me happy to see the Triple Tele become a line, like the Cabronitas.

 

[DreX]

Re: NGD Fender Classic Player Triple Tele

Easier to manufacture than a 22 fret with an overhang? Not many people are really playing that high up? I rarely even get up to the 21st fret. Of my 11 currently active guitars 5 of them have 21 frets and I don't have any problems. Maybe if I were to play Pink Floyd's Time note-for-note it would be a problem but he used a 24 fret Italian guitar on that.

Even though these Tele's and Strats are new designs, they're sort of supposed to be like old-imagined-new, so this particular Tele not only has 21 frets, but an inconvenient heel truss adjustment, and the ash tray bridge. Why they don't re-imagine the Tele with 22 frets is a mystery, but in any event it seems to be a partial "reissue".